


Checking Out

by Sweetpeaasylum



Series: Bibliomancy [1]
Category: Libraries - Fandom, Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Alternate Universe - Norse Religion & Lore, Books, Fantasy, Librarians, Libraries, Loki - Freeform, Magic, Magic-Users, Multi, Mythology - Freeform, Other, This is myth verse, Thor - Freeform, feel free to let me know, if anyone sees any issues, norse myths, not marvel, still to be edited at some point
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-02-21 12:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2468150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweetpeaasylum/pseuds/Sweetpeaasylum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When library page, Asa, finds out that something enormous has escaped the library she works in, which acts as a portal between written universes (books kept in the library) and Earth, she must work quickly to find a way to send it back from where it came. But when she finds a Norse mythology book being the one the creature came from, that's just the beginning of the mess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

There was nothing that the god of mischief enjoyed more than making everything difficult for the humans; they were just so entertaining while in turmoil. Though he couldn’t understand why his nephew loved them to the point of wanting to _protect_ them.

It was disgusting.

But now that he had a new idea, the gears in his head turned away as he came up with exactly what he would need to do in order to follow through with this little “prank.” This new idea of his came from when he was watching a mage – someone he’d later learn was called a bibliomancer – literally bringing stories to life from the words on the pages for children, and the longer he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

He decided upon building large stone archways first – nine in total, each in a different place around the realm of Miðgarðr, even though this was thousands of years before any modern cities would begin to take form. He was a very patient man and he had quite a lot of time to waste, considering that Óðinn would never do anything even _vaguely_ interesting anymore. There was too much peace amongst the realms, and despite the fact that he was a giant, he knew how to blend in with the other races, especially humans.

It had taken him nearly a full year to complete the task of erecting the buildings and arches, but as the keystone of the final arch was erected by his own hand, the trickster grinned in a way that looked more like he was baring his teeth than smiling. While infusing each stone in one arch with Seidr, so that each would be fused together with it, the stone bricks began to glow brighter and brighter gold, until he finished with the keystone, when it flashed a bright, flaming gold for a brief moment before slowly dimming. When he moved onto the next arch, it could pass for any ordinary stone arched doorway to a small, stone building.

 

It wasn’t long after the trickster finished building and enchanting the arches to the stone buildings when he sensed that one of them had begun to work. It was in the middle of a feast after a victorious hunt, while his idiot nephew boasted about nearly being killed, as the warriors three chimed in to yelp about how they’d ‘saved his arse.’ He left discreetly to pay a visit to his scrying room, which was more like a closet-sized room lit only by one torch with carvings of various runes and symbols in the stones, and sat before the unlit torch mounted in the centre of the room.

With a snap of his fingers, the flame puffed to life, glowing greenish for a moment before it faded to a more natural gold colour. “Show me what I have built in Miðgarðr,” he stated in a tongue that sounded almost like the crackling of a flame.

The torch flame steadied, almost reflecting off of the shine of his vibrant red hair and dancing in the green discs of his irises as he gazed into it. He saw nothing for a few seconds, before an image began to come through in the inside of the wide flame, showing a human shouting for help as a mythical beast chased at his heels. The large beast soon overtook the man and by the time help came, the only remains were enormous, clawed footprints and a mess of blood on the grassy forest floor.

The god certainly hadn’t entirely expected this to begin working so quickly – by his calculations, it had only been just over a year in Miðgarðr and it seemed like someone had begun to keep scrolls or books in the building built specifically for that purpose, furnished with shelves made of the densest wood in Ásgarðr. It was only a matter of time before some imbecile of a human began using it for their own collection of scrolls, tablets, or books. It appeared that the beast had come from a papyrus scroll with various pictorial symbols that must’ve been the writing.

The god couldn’t have been more pleased with how this had begun to work for him and even as day after day passed with no action from any of the portals, his excitement hardly faded.

 

After a few centuries though, things seemed to be going awry in Ásgarðr and Heimdallr was beginning to lose sight of Miðgarðr and the trickster’s visions while scrying were also becoming more and more unclear. It wasn’t until his nephew returned to Gladsheim, shouting something about being unable to reach Miðgarðr through the Bifröst and that something must be horribly wrong.

“What in Hel’s name do you mean, you cannot reach Miðgarðr,” Óðinn bellowed, standing from his large chair at a gold gilded desk. This was his ‘office space’ as one might call it, where he does all of his overseeing work for the realms and there were shelves of books of law, research, and other important things he used often for keeping the realms at peace.

Intent upon overhearing this conversation, the trickster slipped unnoticed between two columns, leaning against one of them as he listened further.

“I don’t know, Father,” Thor returned in an equally (and unnecessarily) loud tone, “Heimdallr has lost sight of Miðgarðr completely! He told me that to attempt a crossing would bring certain death, when I insisted that I go anyway.”

Before speaking, Óðinn remained silent for a long time before turning to his left, “Loki,” he bellowed, “show yourself! I know this is of your doing.”

Rolling his eyes and turning nonchalantly, the god in question stepped out from behind the column he was eavesdropping from. He folded his arms across his chest, one corner of his mouth edging up in a smirk, “And what makes you think that this was of my doing, _brother_?”

Óðinn glared at Loki, “I regret every day when I agreed to become your blood-brother and allowed you to remain in Ásgarðr,” he growled, stepping closer to the trickster, who grinned teasingly at him. “What have you done to Miðgarðr,” he demanded, stomping forwards and gripping Loki’s shoulders.

The slighter god disappeared from under Óðinn’s hands in an instant, reappearing at his right and resting his arm around his broad shoulders with a Cheshire cat-like grin. “ _Brother_ , I haven’t done a thing to that wretched place in years… you of all men know I’ve been much too busy causing trouble here.” He swiftly dodged out of Óðinn’s reach, when the All-Father made a move to grasp his throat, his eyes darkening as he stilled, “Perhaps I have done something; what’s it to you? But do you really think that I would purposely cut off my main source of entertainment,” he asked in a serious tone, bringing up a very valid point.

Thor narrowed his eyes as he listened to his father and uncle argue, but piped up after Loki finished speaking, “He’s right, Father, why _would_ he cut himself off from the main realm he goes to in order to spread chaos?” He made no attempt at disguising his distaste for his uncle, to whom he’d openly showed his dislike for in situations like this on numerous occasions. It wasn’t as though anyone never had good times with Loki; of course they had, his antics were often hilarious when they weren’t at their expense, but lately he’d been far too quiet for anyone’s liking.

Óðinn glanced to Thor when he spoke, knowing that when both of them were in agreement, they were usually correct. “So what have you done then to cut yourself off _un_ intentionally,” the All-Father turned back to Loki, his demeanour changing from outright rage to deadly calm in the blink of an eye.

The change in his blood-brother hardly deterred Loki, even though he knew the stages of Óðinn’s rage, which usually went as follows: rage, bellowing, placidly furious, and finally explosive. He often made it his personal goal to get him to the point of being explosive because of how easy it was to goad him, but now he remained silent, intent on thinking through what had happened before speaking. “I built libraries,” he stated simply.


	2. Chapter 1

After a rather dusty night spent in the Temporal City Public Library, Asa slipped her scanner into the slot for it underneath the circulation desk. Thankfully, things had been fairly uneventful, allowing for some time to catch up on her duties as a library page, such as dusting in the nearly untouched reference section, shelving some of the newer books that had come in, and making sure everything in the periodicals rooms was in order. By the time she was locking up, she had thought she would be home free before sunrise, until a muffled thud stopped her in mid-turn of the front door key.

She gritted her teeth, her nostrils flaring for a moment as she squeezed her eyes shut, “Dammit,” she muttered to herself, fully locking the door and then giving a long sigh. She turned around and searched the dimly lit aisles of books organized in neat rows behind the circulation desk. Everyone else had already left, as they had every evening just when she was starting her shift, leaving her to take care of the library overnight if anything were to happen. The second time she swept her gaze over the aisles, she nearly missed the soft golden glow coming from inside one of the bookshelves nearest to the back wall and the thick volume lying on its side. “Of course,” she huffed under her breath, silently making her way to the scanner behind the desk and flipping the power switch to the _SCAN_ [ _Search Character and Novel_ ] mode. The laser inside glowed a dull red and she held her finger over the trigger much like one would the trigger of a gun and slowly made her way towards the back wall, staying away from the aisle with the missing book for the time being.

She peered over a shelf of books to watch the book begin to tremble slightly, before the cover flew open and the pages splayed flat to somewhere in the middle of the book. Before her eyes, brighter golden light began swelling from the center, the pages almost seeming to be on fire. She’d seen this all before, of course, but when a swarm of tiny, blue creatures began shooting from the pages like bullets, she suppressed a groan. These tiny fae had paid the library a visit once before and very nearly gotten the best of her, but that wouldn’t happen this time.

With the scanner at the ready, Asa pursed her lips when the last of the tiny creatures went flying from the book. The swarm was already beginning to reorganize itself as she was poking the scanner through the shelf, aiming it at the text, and then pulling the trigger.

The contraption hummed faintly in her hand as the dull red light brightened into a large beam, much like that of a flashlight and illuminating the aisle faintly, the fae glowing purplish with the red light for a brief moment before –

 _Beep_.

Asa’s eyes widened and she bit the inside of her lip, yanking her arm back and fumbling with the scanner.

 _Beep_.

The muted hum of the swarm’s wings seemed to grow quieter, as they listened for more sound.

 _Beep_.

Her fingers finally found the MUTE button and she pressed it hard, but not before the winged swarm of fae began advancing quickly on her. They of course knew exactly what the source of the beeping was, seeing as they’d already heard it once before and the last time it sent them back to their own world with the bright red light of the scanner.

Asa turned the switch to _RETURN_ [ _Return Everything Unto the Right Novel_ ] mode and her eyes went wide when she found herself face-to-face with what could have been considered an almost blue, moth-like creature only inches away from her nose. Knowing that the creatures relied entirely on their senses of hearing and feeling, she held her breath, making as little noise as possible.

The creature lazily drifted on fluttering wings past her chin and began drawing closer to the nearly inaudible sound of her heartbeat. As it perched on the front of her shirt, her lungs were beginning to burn; she had to breathe, but this creature hearing her heart beating was bad enough. Its thin antennae twitched as more fluttering sounds drew closer and the swarm searched for the source of the beeping. Feeling her chest seem to grow warmer, Asa ventured to take a look at what the fae moth was doing, but when she saw a bright orange glow beginning to spread from up its nimble legs, she gasped.

Instantaneously, the entire swarm began glowing the same bright orange, each of them including the one that now had flown off of her shirt began to spark, their wings fluttering faster. Asa threw herself at the floor wincing as the searing wings of a moth brushed her cheek, the burn instantly blistering, but she couldn’t worry about that as each glowing insect burst into flame, their petite, beating wings a furious, blue-green blaze.

The page whipped the scanner to the ready and began taking aim at each of the flames, hoping to hit their eyes, in which the text from which they came lay hidden. The one closest to her disappeared in a golden, smoky puff when the thin red laser crossed over its middle and the book’s pages flickered gold for an instant before another and another of the rapidly advancing swarm puffed out of existence. Asa scrambled back, the sound attracting the creatures’ attention, but there was no hope for being quiet now, when they knew where she was.

With the scanner humming faintly in her hand each time a creature disappeared, Asa managed to clamber to her feet, yelping when a scorching pain brushed the side of her leg, the fabric of her pants instantly starting aflame from the touch of fiery wings. She frantically shot the beam of the scanner at the moth as it began ascending towards her and with a puff it was gone, but she hurried to brush at her leg, where the flame had died down to an orange burn that hurt no less as she patted it out.

When she righted herself, the swarm didn’t seem nearly as large as it was last time or as when it came through a few minutes ago, but it was no less threatening, even as their numbers slowly decreased. There were still about twenty of them left as Asa bumped into the circulation desk, retreating as quickly as she could without compromising her aim on the fae.

It took her about ten more minutes to be rid of the last of the pests, but when the final one went out with a plume of gold, the area was slightly hazy from the smoke and everything besides her clothes seemed to be intact and unharmed. The book remaining on the floor emanated a soft golden glow that quickly faded completely moments later, as it was re-shelved. She really should have clocked back in for all of that and the clean-up afterwards, but hopefully now that everything seemed to be settled, tomorrow would be a less deceptively slow night at work.

But, just as the front door was being shut when Asa was on her way out, on the third floor, near the back corner of the library in the mythology section, an even larger tome had fallen from the shelf, landing with a heavy, resounding thud that would go unnoticed until morning.

 

As the library page finally arrived at home nearly an hour late, her roommate was still asleep, but she was far from tired enough to even lay down. She had the awful feeling that she’d forgotten something at work. Unable to pay attention to anything on television at this late hour, Asa found herself pacing, debating whether or not she should go back to work to check one last time that everything was alright. Before she decided to leave, “Asa, go the fuck to sleep,” a muffled voice shouted from the bedroom down the hall from her own and she rolled her eyes, realizing that she was practically stomping over the floor as she paced and making more noise than anyone wanted to hear at six in the morning.

“Sorry, I’m going, I didn’t mean to wake you, Dagny,” she called back, earning a barely audible grunt. She snorted, trying to shake the sinking feeling as she got ready for bed and finally lay down. She couldn’t fall asleep right away, but with the help of some melatonin, she was out within the hour.

 

Thumpthumpthumpthump…

Asa cracked open her eyes as her roommate rushed to her door, the thumps of her footsteps quickly followed by urgent knocking. “Asa, wake the hell up, something happened at your library,” she called through the door, knocking again, “Hello in there, are you even alive?”

Before Asa could actually answer, Dagny burst through the door, “Did you hear me?”

“How could I not,” she responded in an irritated tone as she sat up, stretching slightly as she looked at the clock: noon – way too early to be awake and functioning for a night shifter. “What happened?” She hoped it was nothing of her doing. Most things, if they escaped during closed hours couldn’t escape, but occasionally some would and that would only make more work than it was worth in most cases.

“It’s all over the news, just get out here, you need to see this,” and with that, Dagny disappeared from the doorway, leaving Asa confused, but if something was on the news from the library, it probably wasn’t good.

Padding out to the living room, wearing only her pyjamas, Asa frowned when the first thing she saw on the television screen was a reporter standing in front of where the library doors _had_ been. All that remained of them was a mangled mess of wood scraps, glass, and metal scattered over the sidewalk and the doorframe was completely ruined. “Who the hell would do that to a library,” Dagny breathed.

Asa remained silent for a long moment, lost in wondering the same thing, though the question was phrased more like, ‘ _What_ would do that to the library?’


	3. Chapter 2

If there was anything that Asa knew, it was that when her boss saw her, she wouldn’t be blamed for what happened exactly, but it probably wouldn’t be pleasant.  
“Holy shit,” the page breathed, pulling into a parking spot on the street down the block. The damage looked much worse in person than it had on the news channel and she could tell it must’ve been something enormous that came barging through from wherever it had come from.  
“Asa,” Kolfinna called from the just in front of the library. Her bright yellow coat was easily visible from where Asa was standing and she glanced up when she saw her boss.  
“Yeah, what’s going on here, did anyone find anything important,” she asked the head of the library.  
Kolfinna shook her head, pin straight white blond hair swaying back and forth behind her. “No, at least I hope not. If they do, I have no idea what will happen. But it looks like something big tore through the entire library… if only cameras picked up on this kind of thing.” The librarian shook her head, “I don’t know where it’s gone, whatever it is. Do you think you can find it?”  
There was no choice but to find the damn thing, whatever it was – wherever it was. Knowing that it likely wouldn’t stray far from the library, Asa nodded, “Yeah, I’ll find it,” she muttered. Tracking and finding was not the most fun activity. “It’ll probably come back tonight, I’d guess, but if it doesn’t, I’ll look around town for it.” Pain in my ass, Asa thought irritably.  
“We’ll have to see what book is missing,” Kolfinna added, asking one of the nearby police officers if it was safe to enter, before dragging Asa inside when they were told it was safe.  
The inside of the library looked even worse than the doors did when the two entered. Half of the first staircase was missing, part of the railing on the third floor was also missing, bookshelves were overturned and the circulation desk was torn apart. And then the doors were ripped off. “Well, I can tell you this much, it wasn’t a dragon,” Asa stated softly as she appraised the damage. “Looks like… some sort of beast with four claws and paws,” she paused, looking at the scratches in the floor to see how long its gait was, frowning. “This thing is enormous,” her eyes widened and she frowned deeply. And this thing seemed to be very violent; two things that never went well together when it came to beasts.  
“I don’t think we’ll have much luck with finding out which book it’s from without having to find this,” Kolfinna stated as they took the elevator up to the top floor, where the mythology section was. They were silent on the way up, both of them shocked by the level of damage this had caused, “So many of them were destroyed by this creature, I’m not sure if any were eaten,” she continued when the elevator bell dinged and the doors opened.  
This floor had the worst damage of all, not a single free-standing shelf was upright and the books in the mythology section were torn to shreds. Of course, so long as the pages were in tact, anything could still come from them, but once the old copies were catalogued into a list of replacements, they would be safe to either re-bind or get rid of. “What the hell could’ve done this,” Asa breathed, running her fingertips over claw marks, the width from each end mark was wider than her head, making this beast the largest one she’d ever heard of. It had to stand at twice her size and with paws nearly twice the size of her head, it was very dangerous, not to mention the mouth of teeth this thing probably had.  
Asa shuddered to think about it. This was the stuff of nightmares that had come out of one of the books, but the more she thought of it, the more she gave pause, “The book,” she hesitated a moment, bringing her hand up to her mouth as she took a breath, “The book must’ve been completely destroyed in the process of letting this thing out,” she thought aloud.  
The director nodded grimly, “We’ll have to see what book is completely missing or if we can find fragments of it… we need to find out the subject to make sure this thing doesn’t have any real sway in this world.” The woman bit her lip as she thought about the consequences of this, “if it manages to destroy all of the other books it’s in, there is no telling what this could bring.”  
Before they could move anything, the police joined them upstairs to ask for reports as to if they witnessed anything, taking the both of them to the station. The other workers that were working before the library closed also were interviewed, but since none of them but Asa and Kolfinna were there within an hour of the event, they were only able to confirm that there was nothing out of the ordinary happening before they left.  
Both Asa and the library director were taken to separate rooms to be asked about the event, though neither of them could speak of what they knew had happened, they both had spoken about this sort of thing happening and had a plan.  
“I’m not sure… everything was secure before I left for the day and I’ve never had a problem like this before,” Asa answered a policeman. He seemed disbelieving that nothing was out of the ordinary, but he gestured for her to go on. “We’ve had a few more irate customers lately, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. People around the winter months tend to be a bit more testy, if you know what I mean,” she gave a soft laugh, but knew that the situation was serious. There was nothing more that she could say.  
Of course, telling the world that mythical creatures could come out of books through nine different portals worldwide was a bit of a stretch for anyone to believe, let alone the public. If it was ever proven, the public would probably try to destroy them, but they wouldn’t do anything that would have an effect of course. The portals were all but indestructible. Only Loki had the power to destroy them, as he’d been the one to create them and that was the catch with his enchanting. But if he managed to destroy the portals after bringing anything he wished through them, there was no telling what would happen.  
The Vikings weren’t wrong when they’d spoken of Ragnarök, but by today’s standards, it was unlikely that the universe would come to an end, but more than likely bring about the meaning of the word apocalypse. Great change. The abrupt end of something old and familiar that brings the equally abrupt beginning of a new era.  
“Miss Bergfalk,” the officer asked when Asa went silent for a long time, “is everything alright, have you remembered something?”  
The woman flinched at the words, “I-I uh… no… I was just thinking,” she responded quickly, “I’ve told you everything that I can, I’m not sure how this happened, but perhaps something would come up on the security footage,” she suggested. “Is it alright if I go home? I’m starting to get quite the headache from all this,” not to mention only getting a few hours of sleep.  
Officer Johnson gave a pause before he sighed, “Yeah… but call me if you can tell me anymore,” he procured a card from his pocket, “doesn’t matter what time, if I don’t answer, leave me a message. I know this has got to be stressful, but hopefully once we’re done looking around for evidence, the library will be able to be repaired.” He offered a faint smile and stood up, leading Asa out to the front desk of the office.  
“Get some rest… we’ll find whomever did this,” the officer said in a somewhat reassuring tone.  
She nodded, giving a little wave, “Thanks. I’ll call if I have anything else to say,” Asa replied before heading straight for the doors. Find whomever did this my ass, she thought bitterly. If there weren’t so much damage, they possibly could’ve gotten out of this without the cops, but they were just going to slow things down.  
Asa had no plans of heading home when she took the bus back to the library for her car, planning on heading to hers and Kolfinna’s previously agreed-upon spot in case anything like this were to happen. It was a small, family-owned coffee shop on the opposite side of the downtown area that was a cozy, but spacious place with comfortable couches and chairs for seating, checkers/chess tables, and backgammon sets. They also had fantastic drinks and some good snack food to eat.  
After ordering her tea latte, Asa chose a seat close to the corner window to wait for her boss and the other watchman to arrive. He’d probably get a call as soon as Kolfinna was finished with the police and would arrive shortly, but for now, Asa tried to enjoy the warm smell and quiet chatter of the coffee shop before she was dropped into another load of trouble that she didn’t entirely want to deal with at the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how long this took. The holidays killed me with writing and I've been in and out of the hospital. Hopefully these next few chapters come quickly this week. My goal is to have up to chapter seven (including the prologue as 1 chapter) by the end of this week. :)

**Author's Note:**

> This is just part of a book I'm working on writing - any feedback would be appreciated for my own editing purposes. I may try self publishing or getting an agent to publish if it's good enough. As I said in the tags, this isn't related to Marvel comics and I don't own any gods in Norse mythology (even though that would be pretty awesome to know them). I also have the majority of what's going to happen vaguely outlined and I might end up adding a second book/addition to make it a series.


End file.
